Affirmative Advocacy
Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics
The United States boasts scores of organizations that offer crucial representation for groups that are marginalized in national politics, from women to racial minorities to the poor. Here, in the first systematic study of these organizations, Dara Z. Strolovitch explores the challenges and opportunities they face in the new millennium, as waning legal discrimination coincides with increasing political and economic inequalities within the populations they represent.
Drawing on rich new data from a survey of 286 organizations and interviews with forty officials, Strolovitch finds that groups too often prioritize the interests of their most advantaged members: male rather than female racial minorities, for example, or affluent rather than poor women. But Strolovitch also finds that many organizations try to remedy this inequity, and she concludes by distilling their best practices into a set of principles that she calls affirmative advocacy—a form of representation that aims to overcome the entrenched but often subtle biases against people at the intersection of more than one marginalized group. Intelligently combining political theory with sophisticated empirical methods, Affirmative Advocacy will be required reading for students and scholars of American politics.
American Political Science Association: APSA-Gladys M. Kammerer Award
Won
APSA/Political Orgs. and Parties Section: APSA-Leon Epstein Award
Won
American Sociological Association: ASA-Race, Gender, Class Distinguished Scholarship Book Award
Won
“Strolovitch's manuscript, Affirmative Advocacy, represents a substantial and important extension of our understanding on how marginalization within disadvantaged groups works with intersectionality on the ground. In an impressive merging of theoretical and empirical work, Strolovitch demonstrates the problems that social justice advocacy groups have in avoiding replicating within their organizations and organizational agendas the type of hierarchies of power and marginalization of sub-groups that they themselves were founded to confront and oppose. Strolovitch's book is a welcome addition to both the theory-oriented and policy-oriented race, gender, and sexuality literatures as well as being a critical book for those generally interested in how democracies function.” <Michael Dawson, University of Chicago>
“Using impressive original data, Dara Strolovitch probes an important topic: the failure of interest groups that seek to represent the disadvantaged to represent the even more disadvantaged within their constituencies. This is a well-written and compelling work that will deepen our understanding of American democracy.”<Kay Schlozman, Boston College>
“In this important and compelling study Dara Strolovitch analyzes the political representation of the disadvantaged. By examining organizational dynamics Strolovitch demonstrates how certain constituencies are marginalized by lobbying groups that are ostensibly committed to their interests. Affirmative Advocacy is a major contribution to what we know about interest groups in America.”<Jeffrey M. Berry, Tufts University>
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Cases
Acknowledgments
Chapter 2 Closer to a Pluralist Heaven?
Chapter 3 Intersectionality and Representation
Chapter 4 Trickle-Down Representation?
Chapter 5 Tyranny of the Minority? Institutional Targets and Advocacy Strategies
Chapter 6 Coalition and Collaboration among Advocacy Organizations
Chapter 7 Conclusion: Affirmative Advocacy
Appendix B Survey Script
Appendix C Interview Protocol
Law and Legal Studies: Law and Society
Political Science: American Government and Politics | Political Behavior and Public Opinion | Race and Politics
Sociology: Race, Ethnic, and Minority Relations | Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology
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